Suella Braverman

[CurlewKate]

Does anyone else get Enoch Powell vibes? Makes me shiver....

@hamstersarse as someone on the incredibly long waiting list for addiction treatment, which inexplicably requires being sober/clean for a number of months in every area I’ve lived, maybe that’s the problem.

@CeciledeVolangesdeNouveau

I think you are right that there are different triages into addiction treatments. I can very very clearly state that every homeless person in the shelter I worked at had the option for immediate addiction treatment. The issue was getting them there. So many times people were given a place and they didn’t turn up/ refused to take it.

Its tough. I can see why people see it as offensive that Suella described it as a lifestyle choice, but if you scratch under the surface of things, it is one way of describing it. It is true that no one needs to be homeless in the uk. There is genuinely masses of support, it’s just getting people to take it is the hard thing. Personally, I wouldn’t describe it as a lifestyle choice but I understand how sometimes it can appear like that

i hope you get your treatment soon, although I also presume you know that AA NA etc are free and you can take it today if you wanted to?

@hamstersarse thanks for your compassionate reply, I would have understood if you flew off the handle with me!

Re my own situation, I’ve been engaging in good faith with AA for years but my issues with substances are fairly atypical and situational and besides, AA works for a surprisingly small proportion of people, particularly when they’re living with someone who is drinking in secret and abusing them (as I am). I’m pursuing alternative avenues and I haven’t been drunk for over a year. It’s not for lack of effort that I’m not completely sober.

I also appreciate the frustration that must arise when you’re dealing with people who can’t seem to want to make the changes you need them to make, and I know it’s complex. This is obviously a very naive and simplified view but if I see a homeless person I don’t think “I’m not going to give this person anything because it will go on drugs/alcohol” I think “if I had to sleep in a cardboard box/beg strangers for money/prostitute myself for my next fix I would bloody well need to get high/drunk” so I’ll offer to buy them a bit of food but otherwise yep, they’re getting money. I can appreciate that from your end it’s difficult to understand how hopeless and trapped addicts feel when they’re making your job very difficult as well. Hugs all round because it’s a difficult situation.

A lot of homeless people who refuse help are suffering with their mental health but fall through the gaps of the mental health system. They’re not deemed unwell enough to be sectioned but absolutely should be, as homelessness is a danger to oneself.

When someone has lost sight of reality, it’s impossible for them to make sound decisions for their life and wellbeing, so to call it a lifestyle choice is utterly callous and ignorant.

The lives of these people would be completely different if they had the correct medication, but they’re too mentally unwell to see that. It becomes a catch 22, but mental health disorders are not the fault of the person who is unwell, nor is it a choice.

Psychosis:

The current thinking is that although around 1.5 to 3.5% of people will meet diagnostic criteria for a psychotic disorder, a significantly larger, variable number will experience at least one psychotic symptom in their lifetime.[1] Psychosis is a common feature to many psychiatric, neuropsychiatric,[2][3][4] neurologic, neurodevelopmental, and medical conditions. It is the hallmark feature of schizophrenia spectrum and other psychotic disorders, a co-occurring aspect to many mood and substance use disorders,[5] as well as a challenging symptom to many neurologic and medical conditions.
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/books/NBK546579/#:~:text=Psychosis%20is%20a%20constellation%20of,some%20variation%20of%20psychotic%20symptoms.

why are people judging assuming the reasons for a woman not wanting to 'feel the wind through her hair' as you put it?

so they are OK for women to have freedom of choice except when they choose to wear hijab? right.....

racism is racism, you can dress it up in faux concern for 'women's rights' all you like lol.

maybe those women looked at you and thought what you are wearing bizarre? I have a very strong hatred for plether and any sort of animal print. but I don't judge the people wearing it because every single woman should be free to wear whatever the hell she chooses. unless there is any evidence of coercion, assuming there is stems from deeply held internalised misogyny (assuming women don't have agency) and racism (Muslim women = oppressed). why are we assuming women intrinsically prefer to be uncovered rather than covered?

Thank you @bombastix that was the article I needed.

That is not what she said though.

How else are we to interpret confiscating their tents and calling it a lifestyle choice?

@therealcookiemonster strongly agree with you there. There are misogynistic religions and then there’s one-on-one misogyny. I think there are strong misogynistic elements in many religions but choosing to shape your life around religion, even if it’s a choice driven by being brought up in that religion or in a Middle Eastern country where it’s law that you do it, is still a choice. I’d look at women in a hijab very differently in Saudi Arabia as they’re much more forced to wear a hijab, but in the UK they’re not forced to do it and face a variety of negative reactions for wearing one, so it’s definitely a choice. I tend to cover myself up a lot because I have very white skin with thousands of scars and I pin my hair up and put on a beanie in the winter precisely because I don’t want the wind anywhere near it. Different motivation, same instinct, but I’m not discriminated against beyond comments like “aren’t you too hot” in summer, which obviously is so far from counting I feel silly for making the comparison.

I think you should give cruella suella the benefit of doubt. she is obviously wanting the confiscation of tents so they are more amenable to accept her offers of housing them at the ritz from now on.

She’s just been sacked

She was toast last week. Good. Unspeakable woman, and I hope they put in someone like Gove to mend the relationship with the police which is almost certainly the reason she has gone. They obviously had no faith in her to judge from their comments about the protest at the weekend.

When Gove is an acceptable alternative… ye gods.